More specifically, I'm on the East coast and Valve's server is on the West coast. We were testing some CS (without the new netcode) one night and the next day we tested the new TFC 1.5 patch. This allowed me to see the difference first hand. The results were incredible. With the CS game, it was totally laggy, delayed, choppy, and generally unplayable. The next day with the new netcode, the difference was night and day. The delay was virtually gone, and the movement was silky smooth. And this was on a server across the United States! Finally HL netcode is on par with Q3 and UT. In addition, the new VGUI is very cool. It makes issuing commands (or anything else) much easier.

In terms of hardware buzz at the show, I don't expect to see anything too significant, since we have already seen several major hardware releases in the past few months. For one, the cat's out of the bag on 3D video cards. Also, practically all new 3D sound cards (such as Turtle Beach's Santa Cruz) have been announced as well. However, game controllers are the area where we will probably see some action. Microsoft will definitely be showing their new Sidewinder line-up, and I wouldn't be surprised to see new releases/announcements from Gravis/Immersion (their merger must have produced some new gems that they're sitting on), Saitek (E3 is their big show), and Thrustmaster as well.

Voodoo eXtreme: What do you make of the T&L improvements in the GeForce GTS?

3dfx: It looks like a frequency fix, going from 120MHz to 200MHz. That's a 67% jump in frequency but the performance increase doesn't track with the frequency increase. You can look at the independent reviews from Firingsquad and Anand. Q3 scores at low rez do NOT improve, but this is where you're T&L limited! It is highly questionable how much perf. improvement has been made on their T&L...

If you were around to witness the overclocking frenzy that occurred a year ago with the Celeron 300A, prepare yourself for another similar event with the coming of the new FC-PGA Coppermine Celeron 566. The overclocking community is about to be presented with another crave for speed with Intel’s latest Celeron, which will have the same over-clocking potential, only on a much larger scale. With its new .18 micron core, 128kb on-die full-speed cache, and the addition of Streaming SIMD (fancy name for the Intel answer to 3Dnow!), the Celeron 566 is just asking to be overclocked. I was sent a Coppermine Celeron 566 the other day by the fine folks at Gen-X Tech Computers to see just how easy they could make getting an overclocked system up and running. As I type this review I’m cruising along at a stable 850Mhz with not a single problem due to heat (too bad I can’t say that about the rest of the rest of the installation). Gen-X sells the same kit that I received, and is guaranteed to run at 850Mhz for at least a year. Included in the kit is a FC-PGA Celeron Coppermine 566Mhz processor, Asus P3V motherboard, Iwill Slocket II, and to top it off, a Golden Orb Cooler (the funniest cooling fan you’ve ever seen). Over the course of this review, we’ll look over the 566@850 Mhz combo and see if it can bring more bang for your buck than its new Pentium III siblings.

Yesterday, there was a very interesting AMD Roadmap - The Facts article posted over at AnandTech. It covers the upcoming Duron, Thunderbird and Mustang processors, with explanations of the various CPUs. All feature on-die L2 cache, with the Duron taking on the Celeron, and the Thunderbird getting down with the Coppermine. Essentially, the Mustang is to the Thunderbird, as the Pentium III Katmai is to the Coppermine. This is all well and good, and the processor L2 cache sizes, CPU features and other tidbits of info made this a very good read.

There is but one game that should have a warning label on the front of it, and that game is EverQuest; the gaming world’s never seen such an addictive foreign substance in the form of digital entertainment. I personally have had several run-ins with what the industry’s affectionately dubbed "EverCrack;" I started playing about a year ago, when the game was first released, and in just a couple of weeks, I felt myself getting pulled into the abyss…so I promptly threw the game into a corner, unwilling to risk throwing all of my time away. Like a true addict, though, I came back with a nasty hankering for the stuff, and have been playing avidly since December. So when EverQuest’s expansion, Ruins Of Kunark, came to our doorstep, I was naturally chosen to review this newly refined edition of "The Crack" (or maybe I threatened everyone of what would happen if they didn’t let me review it--I don’t remember...).

I'm a relatively fresh 3D programmer that wants to take a stab at writing my own 3D outdoor engine, primarily as a way to learn how to do it. The problem is that there's obviously more than one way to write a 3D engine, as seen when comparing Unreal, Quake 2 and Tribes just to mention a few games.

The type of engine I'm interested in is more of the Tribes/Tribes 2 version, completely outdoor and preferably with an infinite clipping plane. This is probably not feasible but I'd like to have it display as much terrain as the user wishes at least. The user should then be able to navigate this world as if in 'spectator' mode, just flying around with the mouse. The only collision detection that needs to be done is to make sure that the user doesn't go through the ground, through the sky and off the 'edge' of the world. Later on I plan to add models that represents the user, probably a vehicle of some sort, but I don't know if this is something that matters at this stage.

I've been a bit under the weather lately, so I've only got time for a quick update today. In terms of EH coverage, I'm working on an Anti-Aliasing piece which should be up by early next week at the latest, if not late this week. Essentially I will be looking at what AA offers, its performance penalties, and whether or not it is really worth it.